PSA blood tests that check for prostate cancer do more harm than good, and men should no longer get them as part of routine cancer screening, a government panel is recommending.
The recommendation by the Preventive Services Task Force is being made public today. The panel's guidelines long advised men over 75 to forgo the test for PSA, or prostate-specific antigen. The new recommendation extends that do-not-screen advice to all healthy men.
Virginia Moyer of the Baylor College of Medicine, who heads the task force, said screening often detects small tumors that will prove too slow-growing to be deadly. There can be harm from routine screening: impotence or incontinence from the biopsies, surgery and radiation.
EPA may ease pollution restrictions
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed easing new pollution restrictions that angered several states and GOP presidential contender Rick Perry, governor of Texas.
The proposed fix to the cross-state pollution rule would allow 10 states, especially Texas, to emit more smog-causing pollution than had initially been permitted. The rule is designed to decrease smokestack emissions, mostly from coal-fired power plants, in 27 states. Such emissions contribute to unhealthy air downwind.
California deputies fatally shoot man
A California man believed to be the disgruntled employee accused of fatally shooting three co-workers was shot and killed, authorities said.
Three deputies on routine patrol in a Sunnyvale neighborhood encountered the man, who matched Shareef Allman's description, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said. He was crouched behind a vehicle in the driveway of a home. The deputies fired after the man "displayed in a threatening manner his firearm," Smith said. Allman was accused of opening fire Wednesday at Lehigh Southwest Cement Permanente Plant. Three people died and six were wounded before the assailant fled, shooting another woman as he stole her car.
No easy answers in fatal chopper crash
Investigators have found no evidence of engine failure at the time a helicopter crashed in New York's East River, killing a passenger celebrating her 40th birthday and injuring three others.
National Transportation Safety Board member Mark Rosekind said an examination of the wreckage found no sign of a rupture in the helicopter's engine case or metal particles inside that could indicate damage. Rosekind says the agency isn't ruling anything out. Sonia Marra, a British citizen living in Australia, was pulled from the water 90 minutes after the chopper crashed Tuesday.
Feds put heat on Calif. pot dispensaries
Federal prosecutors have told pot dispensaries in California that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state's medical-marijuana law.
At least 16 pot shops received letters this week stating they are violating federal laws. The state's four U.S. attorneys are scheduled to announce a broader coordinated crackdown today. The move comes less than three months after the Obama administration toughened its stand on medical marijuana. That followed a two-year period during which federal officials left alone dispensaries if they were in compliance with laws.
Also
MEMPHIS -- Incumbent Mayor A C Wharton defeated nine rivals in Thursday's election to win four more years in office.
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